Free Motion Mavericks - Week 387 - Poppies

 

One flower that is absolutely everywhere this time of year is the wild poppy.  Why has it taken me years to come up with the idea of quilting it?  I tried out a few ideas on paper, then quilted a sample.  The quilt has a number of 6 inch squares to be filled in, and I wanted a fairly compact design.  This is the first attempt, and apart from the red thread breaking (for once I'll blame the thread - I think it's a dud reel) it was quite quick and easy.  After just one test I was ready to fill in squares on the quilt.

All but one of them were worked on dark red fabric.  I had a good look at the poppies growing at the local allotments, and saw that the general idea is drooping stems for flower buds, upright or slightly drooping for open flowers, and upright stems for seed pods.  As for the leaves, they are deeply cut and generally rather messy in real life, so when quilting they are perfect as an infill on either side of the stems.  I was a little worried they might look too much like seaweed, but people probably wouldn't think so unless I suggested that to them.

I tried the design on the brick red, but prefer it on the darker red.  For some reason the flower shape of this one is more like a Californian poppy.

This flower is more true to life, but as usual I have taken a few botanical liberties.  All told, I'm pleased with how they turned out.

Here goes for Week 387:-

Many thanks to Gail for linking up with her design for a quilt in Jewel Carvings batiks - this version is made by her friend Amy.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

 

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.